Lesson Learned

I have a buddy who is playing fantasy baseball this year for the first time since he was tight rolling his pants in the early nineties....yes, he was a smidgen behind the curve.  Anyway, we text back and forth quite a bit about some of the guys he has on his team and the values of different players around the league.  Last Sunday, we talked and he said he was benching Kyle Blanks to start (insert average hitter here..can't remember who it was) becuase Blanks wasn't hitting and he was tired of him "shooting blanks".  Well, here is the text I sent him Monday night:

"Looks like Kyle Blanks is teaching you a valuable lesson in patience tonight."

His response?

"$%^& I was just looking at that box score when you sent me that text."

Blanks ended up going 3-for-6 with a HR, 3 R and 5 RBI that night agianst Atlanta.  The lesson to be learned is this:  Sometimes patience has to take over, especially in April.  If you thought Blanks was going to hit 25 jacks at the beginning of the year, you have to trust in that prediction, at least for a month.  Switching lineups every day at this point, and especially taking out more talented guys for lesser varieties after only a few games is risky at best, and is sure to send you to the madhouse.  Last year Justin Upton was DROPPED in my keeper league after he had a rough three weeks.  Think that guy regrest that decision?  I have Jay Bruce in a lineup on one of my two teams and he is just killing me right now.  Still, I believed he was going to approach 30 HR before the season, so I have to trust in that call...the second I bench him, he's going to hit three in a week.  Now, if Bruce ends up being Chris Davis circa 2009 and he is still under .200 with three HR on May 5, then something has to be done.

If you can pick up the next big thing on waivers right now and you have the roster space, do it, don't be TOO patient.  But, you have to trust in your individual evaluations of players for at least the month of April.